Members’ Criteria

COSCAP has for many years made it very easy and simple to become a member of the organisation. However, as COSCAP has grown so too has the phenomenon of the number of members who:

• Joined the organisation with a few works many years ago and have created few new works or nothing since then
• Joined the organisation with a repertoire of music that is very inactive (receives little or no airplay or live performances) or received significant airplay but many years ago and not recently

Although the works of the members mentioned above would generally be inactive as they generate very small royalty payments, they still accrue royalties. In the most recent General and Broadcast distributions (July-December 2023), over 800 members generated less than $50 in royalties. Often, it can take years for many members who earn small amounts in each distribution to reach the payment threshold.

Substantial sums of revenue are accrued indefinitely for inactive members.

More active members are deprived of larger payments through the withholding of these funds.

De-motivating situation for more active members.

High administrative costs involved in managing these funds and accounting for them to each member.

To address these issues, the following proposals were made and agreed based on the stated rationale:

In order to be eligible to join COSCAP, the potential member must already be:

• Generating the equivalent in royalties in airplay as the cost to join in the relevant category. For example, to join as a performer the potential member should have generated at least $100 in royalties from airplay of his/her recording(s) during the 12 months prior.
• Alternatively, in the case of songwriters and publishers, evidence might be provided that the work(s) have been performed live at a minimum of 3 major shows during the prior year.

A major show is one for which the COSCAP licence fees are at least $5,000 VAT exclusive.

If you apply but do not yet meet the criteria, we will keep your application open for 12 months and if you meet the requirement during that time, your application and payments will be backdated.

All new members will still join as “provisional’ members.

Where you are already a member, but your works or performances are not “active”, that is, generating at least $50 in royalties over a 2-year period, you will be placed in the “inactive” category.

This means:

• If there is a distribution and you do not meet the minimum $50, the funds which have accumulated for you will be placed in a suspense account.
• If in any of the following distributions over the next 2 years you meet the criteria, the funds will be released.
• If in the last distribution in the 2-year period you still have not reached the required minimum, then the accumulated funds will be made available to the next distribution pool. You will be placed in the “inactive” category until you are generating the minimum royalties. At that time you will return to the active member category.
• You will be provided a statement of account at each distribution whether you meet the threshold or not showing the royalties accumulated.
• Inactive members shall still retain full members’ privileges.